Ten years ago I was 21 and about to leave for a year of exchange studying in Besançon, France. A year that turned out to be a very joyful year. I loved being away from my usual life, I loved getting the opportunity to start from 0 in a new country, a new city and with new people. I met great people during this year, whom I'm still in touch with today.

Now at age 31 I work as a secreatary, after having been unemployed for 3 years. It feels like the best part is yet to come.

Joined: 18 Oct 2004Posts: 1654Location: Within view of Elliot Bay, The Olympics and every ship in the Sound

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:42 pm Post subject:

David,
I believe that is an untapped corner of the market. This is going to be HUGE!

I think I'm in a little more of a sharing mood today. Like I said before, ten years ago I was two weeks out of high school.

Since then I have;

Gone to college and culinary school
Gotten married
Traveled a bit
Managed a shop
Moved over three thousand miles away
Made a mark on Long Island
Wrote for a hippie paper
Had a puppy (yes, I know how it sounds, he's my baby)

Currently; contemplating a chef's position I was offered a few days ago.

I'm in a special position, because I don't know where I'll be a year from now or five years from now. But I know right where I'll be in eight. It's hard to look back and live in the now, when all of your energy is focused on obtaining that future._________________"It's watery....and yet there's a smack of ham."

Ten years ago, I had just completed my first year of college. I believed I wanted to be an actress -- I had been taking classes for eight years and had just played the part of Honey in my university's production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf -- but I still thought I should pursue some sort of college education, and computer science was fun.

Ten years ago, Maxence and I were just about to leave for our first summer vacation together -- two weeks in Tuscany -- and he was also in the process of organizing a surprise party for my 18th birthday, but of course I didn't find out about it until later.

And since then, well, I still think computers are fun, I've changed my mind about the acting thing (but if Scorsese knocks on my door, I may reconsider), and I've found another true calling that makes me happy as can be.

Joined: 14 Dec 2004Posts: 57Location: boston, the home of the bean and the cod

Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject: 10 years ago

Ten years ago:
I was closer to 30 than 50....
I was a newlywed....
Had been in my career for a while and was seeking a change which did not seek me in return...
Loved cooking, wine and books and gardening which was troublesome

Today
Am closer to 50 but feel 30
Am still a newlywed in my heart if not on the calendar
Have had a change in my career that materialized when it was right not when I wanted it
Still love cooking, wine and books and am a much better gardener

More importantly,
I am more patient and less willing to spend money on things. Want to spend money on experience and knowledge. Have started my masters, and bought our dream house, saw my parent's 50th wedding anniversary
(just one week ago!) and know that it is much more important to have a little fun every day...no matter what!_________________"Nobody can teach you how to make the perfect cup of tea. It just happens over time. Wearing cashmere helps of course."

10 years ago I was in my mid-30s, single with a 5 year old who had just started school. I worked night shifts as a midwife, loved food and wine and had finally received some money from my ex-partner for the house that we had jointly owned and which he was still living in. I started learning about the stockmarket and investing that money. I also started learning how to use a computer because my son was using them at school and I didn't want to get left behind by technology.

10 years later, well, you can work out how old I am. I'm living happily ever after with Greg and our 2 teenage boys, I quit my night shift nursing job to concentrate on online retailing which is going well, my share portfolio is worth considerably more than the sum I started off with 10 years ago, I've lost count of the trips we've had overseas and around Australia, and I owe most of the changes in my life to computers. Greg and I met on the internet 7 years ago although we live in the same city. 10 years ago I wouldn't have even dreamt that my life could be so different. But I still love food and wine._________________Doing what you like is freedom
Liking what you do is happiness

This thread may make some feel old, but it makes me feel like I haven't quite started living yet.

10 years ago, I was 11. I was attending my fifth year in grade school at a Chinese school where I fit in very badly, being the gawky, shy, socially awkward kid who could not catch up in studies or sports and neither could I speak any Chinese. I wanted to be a scientist and blow things up. I still went to church and my mother still dressed me in fussy pink dresses even though I was a tomboy. I didn't have much friends, preferred instead to day dream and climb trees and I wanted so badly to get away from Singapore.

Now, I'm 21. Just finishing University, am getting married, still a tomboy, have become atheist, my mother doesn't dress me and I no longer want to be a scientist but still like things that go boom! I mountain bike and instead of climbing trees I climb rocks. And I'm finally leaving Singapore for Canada as soon as my PR comes through. I can't wait to see what's next.
________
medical marijuana news

Last edited by climbeyalex on Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

Wow, I didn't realize this would be such a great "get to know you" question that would unearth the secrets of all the fascinating and diverse people on this board. Reading these responses makes me look forward to the unknown, unwritten future!_________________"Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" --- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I tried to fit in in this topic, and I found a solution, maybe others who are more than 30 YO can fit in. Let's try:
4 X 10 years ago I finished highschool and enrolled in the Army ( I was a sargent in the Intelligence forces)
3.5 X 10 years ago I graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
3 X 10 years ago I returned from a 5 years sejour in France with another unnecessary Diploma, this time from the Sorbonne
2.5 X 10 years ago I married and I'm happily married ever since
2X 10 years ago I decided to change my career and entered the food business.
10 years ago I was 48.

simona---I always love your signature lines but THIS one is truly a poignant classic!

and to follow suit---

4X10 years ago I got to cross Canada by train with 23 other 15 and 16 year old high school kids to Yarmouth N.S.---my first taste of travel without the family!!

3.5X10 years ago I was working on a masters degree in speech pathology and audiology at Minot State College in Minot North Dakota.

3X10 years ago I was living in Melbourne Australia and working in consumer and advertising market research for J.A Cowl and Co. and teaching introductory psych to advertising students.

2.5X10 years ago I was back in Saskatoon studying nursing and had just recently met a very nice man named Dick!

2X10 years ago I was nursing in the Cayman Islands at the government hospital on the pre and post surgical ward.

1.5X10 years ago we had moved back to Canada, I'd opened a bookstore and we lived (and I still do) in a beautiful 1848 stone farm house out in the country near Canada's capital city of Ottawa.

10 years ago Dick and I had discovered European travel and were busy heading over there every year or so and I had developed an interest in cooking informed more by Mediterranean tradition and was beginning to understand what "terroir" meant. Oh and while I am terrible at it I now shared Dick's passion for golf.

Life is more restricted now what with Dick having been paralyzed by a stroke 22 months ago--but life does go on. We spend time together every day and I spring him from "lock-up" once a week for an outing. I still have the bookstore and live in the country with our 5 dogs and cat. And after about a year and a half of depression have started to read and cook again---and thereby experiencing once again the joys and passions of life!_________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

Thanks David for sharing, I hope more of us oldies will contribute to this topic. We may not be so young and fresh, but we do have some life history to share. And it's so refreshing to read about the projects and hopes of our younger friends. Bravo to Harpospeaking for bringing up this topic.

I agree with Simona...it's interesting to read what the youngsters are up to - past, present and future!

David - wow what a wild and varied history! So many careers!

I, on the other hand, have had the most staid of job histories! Teach, teach, teach!

4X10 years ago - I had just finished my freshman year in college (majoring in French) and was living in Wiesbaden, Germany, with my parents. It was my first time in Europe and I soaked it up like a sponge. I went to Paris for the first of many visits and FELL IN LOVE with it!

3.9X 10 - Spent the academic year in Geneve at the university mastering the art of French (and feeling VERY cosmopolitan)! I'm told I sound very Swiss when I speak!

3.5 X 10 - Living in a little wining village outside Stuttgart. Taught in the American dependent schools and got my first copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Immediately started working my way through - probably cooked 1/3 to 1/2 of the recipes in that book. Traveled ALL THE TIME! In France as often as possible!

3X10 - Living in San Francisco with Hubs #1 and had just finished graduate degree in special ed. Teaching very severely physically and mentally diabled youngsters.

2.5 X 10 - Married one year to my true love - Hubs #2 - the wondrous Sam! Still teaching special ed - but learning disabled instead of severely handicapped.

2X10 - Living in Oakland with a darling three year old boy named Ben! Working as a resource specialist with kids with a variety of learning challenges and renovating a "fixer-upper". Mastered pie crust because Ben LOVES pie!

1X 10 - Finished the fixer and bought a larger house (with 42 roses)( )to accommodate the very tall teenager. Adopted Gromit the adorable border terrier. Started playing tennis again.

I've spent the last 10 years continuing as Resource Specialist, traveling (to France whenever possible), walking dogs, reading, playing tennis and tending roses - I'm down to 26. Also helping the boy to fledge - which he seems to have done successfully and which makes me both happy and sad! This summer, I have given myself the gift of classes at Alliance Francaise - which I am adoring! It is really quite stimulating to the sluggish grey matter! Also - preparing the house - that's too big for the two of us - for sale and dreaming of a smaller place - with fewer roses and a magnificent kitchen!_________________L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

I love this thread....even if it makes me feel old too. I love how the internet has shown our friendships are based on shared interests without age being a factor.

Ten years ago we managed to pull off, a fairly stressful at the time, land investment to ensure ourselves a comfortable future. We were able to build our dream home, I made my first trip to Paris (an entire month), then a friend offered me a job in his new company so I went back to work for the next 7 years.

My priorities have now changed and the dream home isn't so important but travel and friends are. We now live in a smaller home which allows us more money for travel and it is easier to just lock up go when the mood takes._________________Barbara

Ten years ago i was 21, living at home just out of Geelong in Australia, having abandoned my studies and working as a waitress. I was in an unhappy relationship that i didnt see how i could end, and wondering how i could get back on a path that seemed right (ie, following my passion and studies to France)

Now, I'm in Paris, married for just over a year to the Frenchman of my dreams, we've bought a darling apartment, i've got my degree and was accepted for masters at the Sorbonne and am in a comfortable job surrounded by great friends.

Life is grand! I had always thought 30 seemed so old, and i dreaded it as 'the end of my youth', but in fact it was the start of one of the most fulfilling periods of my life